Rana and Pam are smiling with delight, outside their shop, having received an official letter from the Council confirming that Limekiln Lane, where theirs is the ONLY shop, is NOT a target! Labour candidate Chris Jones is also in the picture.

A few weeks ago Wallasey Tories, on behalf of Denis Knowles, put a map of the area in one of their electioneering leaflets, in which they published:

” LIMEKILN LANE a new team to tackle problems caused by under-age sale of alcohol will start work soon.”

There is only one outlet for alcohol in Limekiln Lane. It belongs to a Sikh couple, Rana and Pam Singh, seen in the photograph outside their very popular local shop.

That was the Tory election propaganda. What are the facts?

Fact no. 1. “NO DECISION HAS BEEN MADE TO TARGET LIMEKILN LANE.” These exact words were confirmed in a letter to Mr Singh, who everybody knows as Rana, by the Council’s Trading Standards Manager after Rana made a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

Fact no. 2. THE TRADING STANDARDS MANAGER confirmed that any test purchasing exercise is based on information received by them, by the Council’s Licensing Team, or by the Police.

Fact no . 3. MR SINGH WAS ‘THANKED‘ AND ‘CONGRATULATED‘ BY THE POLICE for his strict refusal to serve under-age ‘would be purchasers’ during their ‘tests’.

Fact no. 4. SINCE THOSE TESTS THE POLICE HAVE CONFIRMED THAT THERE CONTINUES TO BE NO SUSPICION ABOUT HIS SHOP.

As the Conservatives have bragged that 11,000 people received their propaganda leaflet we are curious to know what they intend to do about it.

Whilst comments from the Governor of the Bank of England show many leading banks in a poor light the latest TUC research leaves Tory propaganda claims in tatters.

Tory myth no 1: “Government debt is the highest it has ever been”.The truth: The UK’s debt is lower now than it was during most years of the twentieth century. Just 6p in every pound of spending went on paying off debt last year, compared to 8p in 1996. Labour took over from them – with a legacy of crumbling schools to rebuild, hospitals to rebuild, and long queues for patients to be admitted. Of course borrowing to rebuild the country after decline during Mrs Thatcher’s Tory governments was necessary – and you don’t have to be very bright to know that 6p in the pound is less than 8p in the pound.

Tory economics inspiration source?

There’s an old saying: ‘Sins can be forgiven, but stupidity is for ever.’

But the British people are not stupid. Aren’t the Tories insulting the intelligence of the British people with their propaganda?

Tory myth no 2: “Britain’s debt is worse than other countries.”The truth: Our debt is lower than that of France, Germany, Canada, the USA, and many other leading countries hard hit by the world wide bankers’ collapse. (See the chart at the foot of this page.) In fact the IMF (International Monetary Fund) figures reveal that Britain’s debt as a proportion of GDP is the lowest in the wealthy G7 group of countries.

Tory myth no 3: “We have delivered the first 0% council tax.”The truth: Oh dear! Memory loss so soon? Perhaps they should get out more! Don’t they remember Labour’s 0% Council tax right here on Wirral? And that was a Labour decision. But on this occasion the Tories had virtually no choice as it was governed by the central governmen’st restrictions and potential detriments if they did any different. In fact councils all over the country have no effective choice other than to impose a ‘zero’ Council tax change. But do the Wirral ConDems want you to believe it was all their own decision?

'We have a plan. We know the right cuts to make!'

Tory myth no 4: “We have a plan: if we don’t make massive cuts we will face economic disaster.”The truth: In fact deep cuts could damage the fragile recovery. Workers who fear for their jobs will cut back on spending. Those who lose their jobs entirely will not be spending much at all. Local shops and businesses will suffer from the loss of trade. As unemployment rises fewer people pay income tax, even those who do pay less, and the Government’s tax-income will fall at the same time that they have to fork out more in unemployment and other benefits. The Tory ‘economics of the madhouse’ defies cost-benefit analysis for the wider economy and pours more and more public money into non-productive unemployment benefits, and other benefits, to people who could otherwise be gainfully employed

Tory myth no 5: “The cuts will be fair. We are all in this together.” The truth: The Tory cuts hit the low paid more – far more – than those on high incomes. They hit low paid women more than low paid men. They hit the North of England far more than the South and South East of England.

Tory myth no 6:” We know the right direction for recovery – we are dealing with excess bank profits”The Truth:Bankers and finance speculators continue to award themselves millionaire ‘bonuses’. The Super-rich big companies continue to orchestrate tax avoidance through legal means. But the loss to the country is more than £40 billion a year. If enough tax collection staff were employed, rather than being put at risk of redundancy, it is estimated that this tax loss could be halved.

The 'right direction' for recovery?

And the banks and the financiers of ‘the City’ have been shocked by the Governor of the Bank of England’s questioning of their approach to the world crisis in which the banks led the world into crash.

The Tories and ConDems are profoundly embarrassed by his view that the banks may even now, when the Tories are going so easy on them, be moving into the same mistakes that tipped the scales in 2008/9.

The illustration shows that following measures taken by a Labour Government the UK emerged from the bankers' world collapse with lower debt than most of the world's richest countries. The Tory cuts are in line with their ideology of protecting the interests of the very rich.

Want to let us hear your view? Sensible comments that contribute to the subject matter are appreciated. (We do not publish ‘rants’ or ‘low’ language.)

Wednesday’s ‘Wirral Globe’ reports Tory leader Cllr Jeff Green as saying “Wirral Council is facing the same budgetary challenge as all other local authorities across the country and we must adapt.” What a remarkable ‘U’ turn!

Adrian has doubts about the sort of consultation the ConDems intend. Will it just be asking the people to choose between options all of which are bad - to give the impression that they were popular choices?

This apparent shift into reverse gear seems to demolish any claim that he inherited a council in which the previous administration had left him a gaping black hole! But that’s no surprise is it? He was extremely embarrassed at the July Council meeting when he couldn’t even get the Liberal Party (it seems it is now a sub section of the Tories) to agree with him on that.

It scarcely seems five minutes since he and his Party were voicing their concerns very loudly indeed about the SAR consultation – in open halls where the public could attend. It seems that what the Tory/Liberal Collaboration now intends is a very different scheme in which local people will be consulted not about whether to agree the ConDem cuts – but only about which of the ConDem cuts to choose from a menu in which cuts are all that’s on offer.

On page 2 of the Globe Craig Manning’s article quotes a UNISON spokesman as saying that the staff had put together a plan that would have saved more money than the ConDem intentions and that staff are extremely disappointed. Yet the ConDem cabinet member for Culture responds in words that could leave the reader under the impression that the unions are quite happy about the proposed privatisations. The spokesman argues that their conditions will be protected on transfer. Yet everybody knows that the TUPE regulations governing staff transfers are effective only at the time of transfer and can be changed soon after. In any case it is widely anticipated that the Tory Government, supported by its Liberal crutch, will seek to weaken transfer rights – we must wait and see what their propsals will have on employment security.

The ConDems seem bound for a rough ride in the months ahead as the public begin to see just what devastation their ideologically spawned attacks on public services will wreak.

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